A smile may boost your online dating profile

Thursday

Oct 13, 2016 at 9:30 PM

A nice smile is a good proxy for positivity in life, and perhaps even confidence.

By Erika EttinTribune News Service

Way back in 2010 OkCupid reported, via its OkTrends blog, that women smile about 50 percent more than men do and make that flirty-face (duck lips? squinty eyes?) four times as often. But, is smiling actually better? In some cases, yes, and in some, it’s not the optimal pose.

The study shows that it’s not the smile that necessarily makes women’s photos more appealing; rather, it’s the eye contact. As a woman looking into the camera, whether smiling or making said “flirty-face,” you get a much better response than when you’re not looking into the camera. Interestingly enough, men had a better response when both smiling and not smiling … but not looking directly into the camera. Is that because women want a man with a little mystery? What is he looking at anyway? The world may never know.

Now, let’s fast forward to today. In celebration of World Smile Day (How did I not know about this before?) on Oct. 7, the dating app Coffee Meets Bagel looked at the profile photos of about 300 singles using its app (note that this sample size is significantly smaller than that used by OkCupid) and analyzed the smiles of the most popular singles, or the ones who receive “likes” more than 50 percent of the time their profile is shown. Here’s what the data showed us:

Of the single women who are “liked” more than 50 percent of the time:

— 71 percent smile while tilting their head to the side

— 58 percent show their pearly whites when they smile

— 24 percent have a closed-mouth grin

— 17 percent don’t smile in their profile photo

— 2 percent are laughing in their profile photo

Of the single men who are “liked” more than 50 percent of the time:

— 26 percent smile while tilting their head to the side

— 79 percent show their pearly whites when they smile

— 5 percent have a closed-mouth grin

— 16 percent don’t smile in their profile photo

— 0 percent are laughing in their profile photo

All of this is fine and good, but does it tell us anything? For both men and women who get the most “likes,” the majority are showing their teeth when they smile. So brush ‘em up and give a big, toothy grin. When it comes to the closed-mouth smile, women seem to be able to pull this one off more than men. As for the head tilt, as my photographer has shared with me on many occasions, tilting your head makes you seem more approachable. For women, being approachable is generally a good thing. For men, it may be seen as weak, whereas a straight-head shot looks more confident and powerful.

Of course, what this study doesn’t do is take out the variability caused by any other factor, such as overall attractiveness. So, I’m going to assume that these 300 people also happen to be the most attractive people on the app — period — which is why they’re getting more than 50 percent of likes anyway. At that point, how much does one’s facial expression even matter?

In the end, I subscribe to the common wisdom that you have to love yourself before you can love someone else. And, in general, people want to be with someone who has a positive, happy outlook on life. So, I’d say that a nice smile is a good proxy for positivity in life, and perhaps even confidence, and in that case, it’s always welcome.

— Erika Ettin is the founder of A Little Nudge, where she helps people navigate the world of online dating.